The Musical Box
by Tall T
Summary: When Pacifica is haunted by a ghost of her past - literally, of course - she decides to ask for semi-professional help.
1. A little bit more time

It was a slow day at the Mystery Shack. The Tourists were so few and far between that even Stan had given up looking for suckers, and decided that an afternoon nap would be a better use of his time. In his absence, crew and visiting relatives were doing whatever they pleased. Wendy was reading a tabloid magazine, and Mabel was peeking over her shoulder and frequently giggling at the headlines. Soos was trying to figure out a Rubik's Cube that he had found at the bottom of the discount bin. While Dipper, true to his cause, was reading up on supernatural phenomenons.

All was quiet until a light ring of the bell announced to everyone that the Mystery Shack had visitors. Everyone turned towards the door, except for Wendy, who looked like she couldn't be bothered. However, even she turned slightly as she realized who the unexpected visitor was...

"Pacifica." Dipper and Mabel muttered almost in unison. Putting his book discreetly aside, Dipper walked over to her and said:

"What do you want? Stan is having a nap, and he doesn't want to be disturbed right now."

«Suits me fine, since my business is with you and Pollyanna here», Pacifica replied, pointing at Mabel.

"My name is not Pollyanna, silly!", Mabel chuckled. "Although I've been called that many times. I wonder why…"

"So everyone else, scram!" she commanded, looking at Soos and Wendy. Wendy _was_ about to leave the room before Pacifica came. Lazy afternoons like these was the perfect time for her to sneak away for some r&r on her secret rooftop spot. But there was no way she was going anywhere on Pacifica Northwest's command.

"Okay, miss!" Soos replied.

"Soos, no!" Wendy yelled. "You take orders too easily. Don't go anywhere just because that brat is telling you to!"

"Okay, Wendy!"

Pacifica glared at the redheaded teenager. "Are you challenging me, Corduroy?" she said furiously, "Careful, remember your dad works for my family business!"

So the Northwest family gets their money from timber, Dipper observed, remembering Wendy's father, the hulking lumberjack known as Manly Dan.

Wendy looked unimpressed. "Good luck trying to talk your parents into taking it out on my dad!", she dared the rich girl. "He has the most seniority, the highest attendance, and is head of the union. Your parents can't afford to lose him, and they know it!"

Pacifica gritted her teeth, but didn't know how to reply, much to Dipper's glee. Wendy kept finding new ways to impress him, even if it wasn't necessarily her intention.

"Anything you can tell Mabel and me, you can tell Wendy!" he announced confidently.

"You don't understand!" Pacifica snapped, "I'm being stalked by a former boyfriend!"

Wendy snickered. "That's all? I can totally help you there! I've had ex-boyfriends stalking me before…"

"Ex-boyfriends who has been _dead for four years_?"

In the silence that followed, you could've heard a pin dropping on a pillow.

"I don't care what you say, Wendy", Soos muttered nervously, "I'm outta here anyway!"

"Me too", the teen replied, moving towards her secret ladder to the roof. "I've already had enough ghost encounters for a lifetime."

Mabel and Dipper looked at each other, then at Pacifica.

"Seriously, though", Dipper began when Soos and Wendy had left the room, "are you saying you've seen a ghost?"

"Call it what you want", Pacifica answered reluctantly, "But I know what I saw, and what I saw was a kid who's been dead for four years."

"Who's this kid?"

"His name is.._was_ Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor. We had a…fling when he was eight and I was nine."

"You had a boyfriend when you were nine?" Mabel exclaimed, "And you think _I'm _too eager to find a boyfriend, at the age of twelve!", she said smugly to her twin brother.

"I said it was a fling! Nothing serious. Our parents kept bringing us together for playdates because they were business partners. And quite frankly, Henry was more smitten with me than I was with him." She shrugged. "Come to think of it, that describes every relationship I've ever had with a boy, really."

"When did you last see him?", Dipper asked, trying to sound professional.

"Last night, in my room…" the rich girl began hesitatingly. "He said something about just needing a little bit more time to live out his life…I'm not sure what he meant, but I could tell he was coming on to me."

"Coming on to you?" Mabel said, intrigued. "How old was he?"

"Eight, just like he was when he died."

"So you're into younger guys?" Mable continued. "I mean, he was younger even when you were both still alive..."

"_Any_way", Dipper intervened, "where did he come from?"

"From a musical box."

"A musical box?"

"Yes, an antique that's been in my family for generation. It plays 'Old King Cole'."

"Interesting…Can you describe your first encounter with this…kid from the musical box?"

Pacifica sighed. "It happened a week ago. I was getting ready for bed when I crossed the corridor to get to my bathroom. The musical box was sitting on an antique cabinet – another family heirloom – and just as I passed it, it began playing by itself. It made me stop and look for a moment. Then a voice out of nowhere said: 'Play me my song, here it goes again', and – " she hesitated – "Henry…appeared."

"Appeared?"

"Yeah, out of nowhere. He suddenly just materialized when the music started playing."

"Huh. Sounds like a ghost." Dipper said analytically. "Did he touch you?"

"No, but not for the lack of trying." Pacifica answered, looking slightly disgusted. "He kept trying to kiss me, but I dodged him."

"So what did he say?"

"I told you, he said that he needed just a little bit more time to live out his life."

"What else?"

"Lots of nonsense…let's see…'play me old King Cole so I may join with you. All your hearts now seem so far from me'…and 'I am lost within this half-world'. Then when he made advances at me, he said 'brush back your hair, and let me get to know your face.' Then he said…" She hesitated again. At this point it was obvious that Pacifica felt very upset. "You're a lady. You're mine. Brush back your hair, and let me get to know your…flesh."

Both twins gritted their teeth.

"Whoa, a real pervert!" Mabel exclaimed.

"And how often has this happened since?", Dipper asked, trying to keep his cool.

"Twice. The last time it happened was last night."

"Lost within this half-world" sounds like something a ghost would say, anyway" Dipper concluded.

"Yeah, like I said, call it whatever you like. So, will you investigate it?"

"Not so fast", Dipper tried. "Why should we do anything to help _you_?"

"Because", the blond girl said confidently, "you obviously think this is a supernatural case, and everyone in town knows that Dipper Pines can't resist the temptation to investigate anything that might be supernatural. You have quite the reputation already."

Dipper sighed. "Mabel", he said turning to his twin sister who was sitting on the abandoned cashier counter, "Am I that predictable?"

"I knew you were going to say that", the brunette replied, "So I guess the answer has to be yes."

"Are you up for it?"

"Sure!", Mabel replied as she jumped off the counter.

He turned to Pacifica. "So where do we begin?"

"I see no reason to waste time. Come to my place at nine thirty this evening."

"Will do!" Mabel said cheerfully, saluting her.

"But use the kicthen entrance."

"We'll be using the _main_ entrance, end of discussion!" Dipper said firmly, crossing his arms.

Crossing her arms back at him, the blonde frowned slightly, but all she said was:

"Fine."

* * *

TBC


	2. Play me my song

True to form, Dipper prepared well for the evening's ghost exploration, starting with dragging Mabel with him down to the library to search for information one Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor. The obituary was easy to find, but no matter how much they searched the newspapers from the days before the obituary, the twins were unable to find any mention of _how _Henry died. The only thing the obituary could tell them was the boy passed away "suddenly" at the age of eight. Dipper regretted not asking Pacifica about the cause of Henry's death right away. That might be helpful in figuring out why he haunted her.

Neither of them had ever been to Pacifica's house before, but they had no problem finding it, let alone identifying it. In such a small town, it stood out, even amongst the other homes in the neighbourhood that one might tenatively call the Beverly Hills of Gravity Falls. The fancy colonial-styled Northwest Manor was rising slightly above its neighbours, and Dipper was surprised to bee greeted by Pacifica herself when he rang the doorbell, rather than some butler. Possibly, she was too embarrassed to let anyone see who her visitors were. The fact that she didn't even take them to see her parents seemed to confirm this.

"Pacifica?", he asked as they moved along a long corridor towards a staircase, "Are your parents okay with you having visitors over this late?"

"Sure, I just told them you're here for a sleepover."

"Yay, sleepover!" Mabel exclaimed. "So what are we gonna do first? Make popcorn? Watch a movie? Or tell ghost stor...uh, scratch that, guess"

"Don't get too excited, Miss Sunshine." Pacifica muttered. "I told them that just to justify having guests here at bedtime. _I'm _getting ready to go to bed, you're not. Dipper, turn around!", she barked. "I need to change."

"No problem" he growled as he turned and looked at the wall. "But you could say please."

"You guys are only here to look into this little problem." Pacifica explained as she changed into a nightgown behind Dipper's back and, ignoring his last remark. "As soon as you fixed it, you can go right home. Okay, you can turn around again."

The green silk nightgown that Pacifica was currently wearing was stunning enough to make Dipper forget what he wanted to say, if only for a fraction of a second.

"As soon as we've fixed this?", he snapped. "Pacifica, we're not pest exterminators. There's no guarantee that we can make this little problem of yours go away just like –"

Pacifica slammed the bathroom door behind her, which Dipper assumed was her less than subtle way of saying "Yeah, whatever." He sat down on a stool, muttering under his breath, when he suddenly became aware of Mabel moving towards the…

"Mabel, what do you think you're doing?" he whispered to his sister. "Don't touch that thing!"

"I just wanted to hear what it sounded like", she defended herself, and added with a grin: "Besides, it might freak Pacifica out if it suddenly started playing while she's at the bathroom."

"Tempting" Dipper admitted. "But we're gonna do this properly. Besides, if you start it now, you might scare away the ghost."

"So you think there's a ghost?"

"What else could it be?"

"Maybe she's setting us up for a prank."

"Well, that…" Dipper hesitated. "Wait a minute, that's the sort of thing _I'm_ supposed to think of. "

"Yeah, funny that." Mabel remarked. "So why do you think she's sincere?"

"For one thing, she seemed very reluctant to ask for our help. If she was playing a prank, she probably would've faked friendliness to lure us into a false sense of security. And besides, she doesn't seem to be setting us in a potentially embarrassing situation."

A nearly overwhelming smell of fluoride rinse flowed out as the bathroom door opened abruptly.

"Oh hi, Pacifica, we were just talking about you." Mabel smiled.

"Are you ready?" she asked Dipper…or at least she was looking only at him as she said it. Then she proceeded to swagger across the floor without waiting for an answer.

"I have to warn you." Dipper commented as he and Mabel got up and followed her. "This is a longshot anyway. I mean, Henry doesn't appear every night, does he? What are the odds of him appearing two nights in a…"

Dipper interrupted himself as he noticed a faint tune:

_Old King Cole was a merry old soul,_

_And a merry old soul was he._

_So he called for his pipe,_

_And he called got his bowl,_

_And he called for his fiddlers three._

All three looked at the direction of the musical box.

"Looks like the odds are increasing." Mabel remarked, only to be hushed by both her brother and Pacifica.

Noticing that even the clock on the nearby mantelpiece seemed to go slower, Dipper studied the musical box from which the sound was clearly coming. He was filled with a fearful joy as the apparition of a young boy slowly materialized before their eyes. As far as he could tell, the kid has dark brown hair and was rather short for an eight-year old. He had a button nose, and his features seemed fairly handsome. His voice, however, although it was low and hesitant, sounded eerily adult as it said:

"And I want…and I feel…and I know…and I touch…"

The figure moved towards Pacifica, who backed away in fear.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Mabel remarked:

"You want to play croquet _now_, Pacifica?"

"What kind of random nonsense are you spouting now, Mab –" her expression stiffened. "Wait!" the blonde continued after a moment's hesitation, "Did you say…croquet?"

Slowly, Pacifica's gaze moved downwards. She yelped as she noticed that for some reason, she was holding a croquet mallet. Desperately, she tried to let go of it, only to find that it was stuck to her.

"Oh gross, look at Henry now!" Mabel pointed.

All three tweens looked in the direction of the dead boy. Whereas he had looked rather clean and healthy a moment ago, his face was now covered in blood stains, and his head was cracked open. Yet he was still smiling as he kept looking at Pacifica, seemingly not even noticing Dipper and Mabel's presence. Amazingly, Pacifica didn't scream at the sight of blood dripping from her ex-boyfriend's cracked open skull. Not until she looked down at her mallet again, and found that it was covered with blood as well. Then she let out a shriek of unrestrained horror.

* * *

**To be continued**


	3. All your hearts

«So», Mabel began as the ghost of Henry Hamilton-Smythe moved closer to Pacifica, his spectral head still cracked open and dripping with blood, "What do we do now?"

Dipper, though he didn't want to admit it, hesitated. He wasn't expecting Henry to show up this quickly, or at all, the evening, and he really wished he knew what the deal was with these gory 'special effects' But the book _did_ give him a clue on what to do with a ghost like this, at least if Henry's motivation was what he thought it was.

"I've been waiting here for so long" he said to Pacifica, his voice calm and collected, apparently unfazed by his own increasingly grotesque appearance. In fact, it was calm enough to seemingly be the cause of Pacifica stopping her screaming. However, she was still looking him with terror in her eyes, and was holding up her croquet mallet in defense. This seemed odd when you stopped to think about it, since Henry was probably the one who had somehow put the mallet in her hand to begin with. Dipper had encountered ghosts who could conjure up a lamb costume out of nowhere, so a blood-stained croquet mallet shouldn't be impossible.

"And all this time that passed me by", Henry continued, "It hardly seems to matter now…"

"Begone, foul spirit!" Mabel cried, as she suddenly jumped up in front of Pacifica. "I banish you! Shoosh! Shoosh!", she continued while waving her arms frantically. In another situation this would probably have looked hilarious, but neither Dipper nor Pacifica felt like laughing at that moment. Dipper just slapped his forehead and groaned. A bit too early, perhaps, as Mabel's antics actually seemed to have an effect on the young boy ghost. Up until then, Henry had acted as if he was alone with Pacifica. Mabel's less than subtle reminder that he _wasn't _made him look uneasy, even scared. And when Mabel refused to stop waving her hands in front of him, he eventually just disappeared. Interestingly, at least from Dipper's POV, Henry had returned to a healthy, non-gory appearance just before they lost sight of him.

Just as Henry disappeared out of sight, so did the mallet Pacifica had involuntarily been holding. With a sigh of relief, but still understandably shell-shocked, she sat down on the floor.

"Pacifica", Dipper said, trying to sound calm, "I think you owe us an explanation."

For a moment, Pacifica looked as if she wanted to yell at him, but she eventually looked down with a resigned look.

"What do you want to know?"

"Are you a natural blonde?", Mabel tried. "What?", she added as she noticed that both her brother and Pacifica were staring at her.

"What we want to know", Dipper said patiently, "Is how did Henry die? We didn't find anything about it in the papers."

"I'd rather answer Mabel's question.", the rich girl quipped with a sigh. "Look…take a chair."

All three tweens found one and sat down in a circle.

"Okay, you got me, I was trying to avoid this", Pacifica began. "But there's a good reason for that, I think you'll agree. I want to make one thing perfectly clear. What I'm about to tell you will never leave this room."

"Okay, we won't tell anyone." Dipper promised.

Mabel made a zipper gesture across her mouth to signify the same. "Professional confidentiality", she added.

"I'm serious!" Pacifica hissed. "This is bad! It's worse than what you guys dug up about my forefather."

"Ooh, this ought to be good", Mabel exclaimed. This time she didn't even have to look at her companions' facial expressions to know the only proper way to follow up on that comment:

"Sorry. Go on, Pacifica, if you please."

Pacifica hawked and leaned back. "Like I said, this happened when I was nine and Henry was eight. It was in the summer, a warm, early august Friday. My folks were having Henry's parents over for a soiree, and they set us up for a playdate. We were…we were…" - Pacifica paused for a moment –

"…playing croquet in the garden…"

Dipper felt a chill in his spine. He pretty much saw this coming, almost from the moment the mallet materialized in Pacifica's hands, but it was still scary to get it confirmed.

"Now, I've always been very competitive, even about something as lame as croquet.", she continued. "It was my turn, and Henry's blue ball was in a vulnerable position. I had the opportunity to move it way off course."

"A good sport, as always.", Dipper commented dryly.

"So I raised the mallet really high", Pacifica continued, ignoring this, "squeezed it as hard as I could, gritted my teeth and swung it…"

She paused again.

"It all happened so fast…" Her voice got weaker. "Henry tripped over a hoop when he tried to move closer, he fell over…and got in the way of the ball…he was caught in the middle, and….and …I swear, it all happened over the course of just a few seconds, I didn't have time to react…." She paused briefly again, and swallowed. "I was so determined, I wasn't concentrating on anything else than striking, striking hard and fast. I didn't _see _what was happening…"

Dipper suddenly noticed that Mabel was holding his hand. Or more accurately, she was squeezing it, while looking at Pacifica in terror.

"Keep in mind that these mallets were really solid stuff. Not the cheap ones you buy in a toy store, this was proper sports equipment. Anyway, Henry's head landed right next to the ball, _one _millisecond before my mallet would've hit it…and…" She sighed again. "Admit it, you've guessed this by now – I smashed his head in."

The Pines twins just stared. Dipper felt that he ought to say something profound or observational, but what would it be? '_You murdered him'_ seemed just a little too insensitive. Not to mention overly obvious.

"They tried to save his life, of course, but it was too late", the blonde continued. "You say you didn't find anything about Henry's death in the papers? Well, that's because we all agreed to hush it down. Obviously, my parents had no interest in letting this story get out, and the Hamilton-Smythes didn't want their son to be remembered as a campfire story. The mallet was burned, along with the rest of the set."

Pacifica stood up and took another look at her hands, as if to assure herself that the ghostly mallet had not returned. The she looked Dipper in the eyes.

"And before you ask, no, this never happened before. Not the part with the mallet and Henry's…head." She sat down on the floor and buried her face in her elbows. But they couldn't tell if she was crying.

"Go", she muttered. "Just go."

And so they did, in complete silence. Indeed, Dipper and Mabel didn't say a word, even to each other before they were back in the Mystery Shack.

"You think she'll ask us to come back?", Mabel finally asked.

"Probably, she just needs some time to calm down and sleep on it", her brother replied. He looked at the book. "Actually, I hope she'll ask us to come back. I have a few theories that I need to check out."

"Well, whatever you've got planned, I hope it works. 'Cause I can't go over to Pacifica's house every night for the rest of my life to chase away Henry's ghost - Although it _was _kinda fun."

Dipper tried not to roll his eyes as his sister began humming the theme to "The Exorcist".

* * *

**Thanks for the ****reviews and faves, everyone! Because of them, I've been able to keep this fic updated on a surprisingly regular schedule.**

**Kudos to Fates My Bitch, who correctly guessed that Pacifica killed her ex (although I think more of you suspected this).**


	4. Lost within this half-world

Dipper didn't sleep well that night. Not because the ghost encounter had frightened him too much – although it was worse than he expected - but rather because it had given him so much to think about. He had been lying awake, pondering about strategies and theories, wondering what to tell Pacifica. He couldn't believe he made such an effort for her. Pacifica had been right about him – he couldn't resist a mystery.

But she still owed them at least one answer.

When Dipper and Mabel had finished breakfast the next morning, Stan was already in the store, as per usual checking the register before opening to make sure nothing had somehow disappeared overnight.

He looked up as he noticed the entering "So, I hear ya kids went on another wild ghost chase last night", he commented.

"Yeah, and it was gross!" Mabel exclaimed. The fact that she looked rather excited while saying this didn't really surprise either her brother or her Grunkle Stan. Dipper just nodded.

Not really interested in any details, Stan moved towards the door and prepared to turn the "closed" sign. "Wendy has an afternoon shift", he casually explained. "So I need ya to look after the store in about an hour..."

To his surprise, the door opened the very same moment that he turned the "closed" sign to "open" It was Pacifica. "Oh it's you", Stan muttered in disappointment. He suspected that the rich girl wasn't here to buy anything.

"Did you sleep well?" Mabel promptly asked her. She didn't look that way. In fact, she looked more fatigued than Dipper. He couldn't tell if Mabel asked this question out of concern or to taunt Pacifica. It was more likely to be the former, considering this was Mabel, but you never know.

"No." she growled in response. "And that's what I wanted to talk to you about…" She looked around for a moment. "Pines", she said, addressing Grunkle Stan, "Don't you have anywhere to go?"

"I've got a guided tour scheduled in an hour, but nothing before that", he replied. Then he added with a frown: "Not that it's any of your business."

"It _is._" The blonde produced a fifty dollar note. "Fifty bucks if you leave right away."

Stan stared at her for a moment, as if he briefly considered reclining the offer out of pride. Naturally, he didn't.

"Kids", he said to Dipper and Mabel as he snapped the bill out of Pacifica's hand, "mind the store, will ya?"

"Gee, thanks!" Mabel complained, "Now we have to stay here for an hour extra."

"You didn't look like you were in a hurry to go anywhere", Pacifica replied bluntly, pressing her hands against her hips.

"You could've just asked us to talk with you outside, you know", Dipper pointed out

"I needed to show that I'm still in charge." She rubbed her forehead. "That I haven't lost it." The dull voice revealed the fatigue that was evident in her eyes.

"Did Henry return last night?" Mabel suddenly asked.

Pacifica hesitated before she replied. "No."

Dipper thought this over. The last sighting of Henry might have scared Pacifica even more than they realized. She looked as if she wanted to say that Henry _had_ returned last night. But the truth, most likely, was that the very graphic reminders of her croquet accident had upset her more than she was willing to admit. The memory alone had probably caused her a sleepless night.

"He didn't have to", she continued, which was at least close to being a confession. "Let's talk…business."

Dipper sat down behind the counter, folded his hands and tried to look business-like.

"Yeah, let's. I have another question for you, Pacifica."

The blonde winced, but after a pause, just nodded.

"That musical box isn't really the Northwest's old family heirloom, is it?"

Their "client" hesitated again. The she looked down and sighed. "No. It's the _Hamilton-Smythe_'s old family heirloom. Apparently, it was Henry's last wish that I should have it. You can understand why I didn't want to tell you that part at first, right?" She raised her head again. "But how did you know?"

"Qualified guess", Dipper replied. "Ghosts will often appear through an object that has great symbolic value to them."

Pacifica looked as if she was pondering about this for a moment. "So if I destroy the musical box, does it mean that Henry will disappear as well? That would be convenient. My folks will be upset, but I can make it look like an accident…"

"I don't recommend that", Dipper commented. "There are stories of people who have tried destroying the object, but were stuck with the ghost. Henry's spirit might have travelled with the musical box, but that doesn't mean he's bound to it."

Pacifica clenched her fists.

"Great! Are you saying I'm stuck with him?"

Dipper looked her up and down. Even now, Pacifica didn't seem as quarrelsome or arrogant as usual. Sure, she was hardly being_ friendly_, but that would be an unreasonable, considering what she had just been through. The important thing was, she seemed willing to listen to reason and as much as she would probably try to deny it, she was actually treating him and Mabel as equals for the moment. This made what he was going to suggest much easier.

Dipper shook his head. "You have to understand, Pacifica, ghosts always have a special _reason_ for staying around, they don't hang around just out of spite. I don't think Henry is looking for revenge. I think he did that trick with the croquet mallet to make you feel guilty. It's just puppy love. We just have to wait for him to get over it."

Pacifica grimaced. "Wait? For how long?"

**A/N Hi there! Sorry, this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest. It was originally going to be the finale, but I decided to split it in two and make it five chapters instead of four. Besides, I spent most of last week working on an article, so this installment would've been way delayed if I didn't cut it short.**


	5. Touch me

**A/N: Sorry, I wanted to finish this chapter sooner, but it's been a few busy days, and everyday things just got in the way. I've decided to add some implied DipperXPacifica in the last chapter, just to make things more interesting. I hope you like.**

**Btw, this whole plot is in fact taken from a very old Genesis song titled "The Musical Box". I even incorporated many of the lines in the song into the fic. The original story, as well as the character of Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor, was created by Genesis singer/songwriter Peter Gabriel, while the other characters are of course the property of Axel Hirsch and Disney. So basically, I own nothing. **

**Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

As it turned out, Dipper and Mabel meeting Henry at their first attempt had been a lucky coincidence. Pacifica insisted that they came back the next evening, but the ghost of the dead boy was a no-show. So she asked them to come back the next day as well. Nothing happened. Then, on the fourth evening, the twins got a surprise. Not because Henry showed up again – he didn't – but because Pacifica insisted that they should sleep over.

After talking it over and calling Grunkle Stan, they agreed to do it. Stan sounded as surprised as they were, and not exactly overjoyed – after all, he didn't get along with Pacifica either – but gave his permission.

Dipper politely pointed out that this probably wouldn't help matter. If anything, there was a possibility that Henry sensed their presence, and would only stay away until he was certain that he was alone with Pacifica. Pacifica dismissed this:

"No, he'll be back any time now! We have to stay alert and remember the plan."

Dipper suspected that there was another reason why she wanted them to stay with her, but he didn't want to mention it to the blonde, or even to Mabel, just yet.

As if the whole situation wasn't awkward enough, Pacifica was very hesitant to turn off the lights or go to sleep. Which meant that Mabel was treating this more and more like a pajama party, something which Dipper had warned her against. As he had reminded her, Pacifica was obviously not in the mood for fun and games, and just because she wanted them to stay for the night, that didn't mean she thought of them as friends.

"Come on, there must be something we can do! I mean, you have a tv and DVD player in here, and I see you have nail polish and a make-up set on that shelf. We can see a movie or do each other's nails…"

"No!" Pacifica snapped.

"But I'm bored! Why do we just have to just sit here and look at each other?", Mabel complained.

"Because I'm afraid!"

For the moment, the room was quite as Pacifica took a deep breath.

"There! I said it! I'm afraid, okay? Are you happy now?"

Mabel stared at her dumbfounded. "Uh…should we be?"

_That's what I suspected_, Dipper thought, although he hadn't expected her to confess.

"I can't tell my parents." Pacifica continued. "They'll think I'm crazy! And I can't tell my friends. They'll think I'm a freak! You guys are the only ones I have right now. You're the only ones who know what it's like to be considered….to be considered…" she hesitated.

"…Crazy?" Mabel suggested, in an accusing and insulted tone of voice. "To be considered freaks?"

"I…I never called you that", Pacifica muttered defensively.

Pacifica's behavior the first night was more than a moment's weakness, Dipper realized. The experience had made her more vulnerable. Until now, he had never dared to suspect that the rich girl had a soft side, but seeing her like this - frightened, small, fragile and _almost _prepared to apologize for the way she acted - he took pity on her for the first time.

But telling her so would probably be a very bad idea. So he kept a stiff upper lip, adjusted his cap demonstratively and said calmly:

"Don't worry, Pacifica. We'll be here for you for as long as it takes. And we won't judge you…if you don't judge us."

He put emphasis on the last few words, hoping it didn't sound too accusing. Pacifica gave him an indeterminate look, but finally nodded. For a minute or so more, she stared at him in silence. Dipper didn't know quite what to make of that. Eventually, she just sighed and looked down. "I think I want to go to sleep now", she announced, sounding calmer. Dipper carried his mattress and sheet out of her bedchamber and lay down to sleep right outside her door, as they had agreed on already. He didn't mind; it was a very comfortable mattress. Besides, Mabel was allowed to stay and sleep in Pacifica's bedroom.

**~0~**

Both were also allowed to have breakfast with Pacifica's family (who consisted only of Pacifica and her parents) the next morning, although they had to agree to play along with a story Pacifica had told her parents in advance: They weren't Stanford Pines' great-nephew-and niece. They were very distant relatives who had never met Stan before, but had no other choice but to accept an offer to stay with him in the Mystery Shack for the summer because their parents couldn't afford a vacation for them. None of them felt very comfortable about basically being asked to disown Grunkle Stan, but Dipper convinced Mabel to let Pacifica have her way this time. He didn't want to upset the rich girl, not for the time being.

When she asked them to come back for the fifth night in a row, both of them were almost about to say no. Pacifica seemed calmer, less afraid, and Dipper was about to tell her that she could get through this one night alone, until he looked into her eyes and saw some of the frailness he'd noticed before.

The twins turned up at nine, and waited once again for Pacifica to go through her usual bedroom routines. She seemed more self-confident this evening; at least she positively strutted as she walked past Dipper, almost as if she wanted to show off her new nightgown (at least she was wearing one that Dipper had never seen before) to him.

Her confident pose stiffened, however, as she suddenly noticed a familiar tune:

_Old King Cole was a merry old soul,_

_And a merry old soul was he._

_So he called for his pipe,_

_And he called got his bowl,_

_And he called for his fiddlers three._

Everyone stopped and looked in the direction of the musical box. The tune took about thirty seconds, and Henry didn't materialize until the end of it.

"This is not a drill! I repeat: This is not a drill!" Mabel whispered.

"Remember the plan, Pacifica!" Dipper whispered.

Dipper was worried that fear would overtake Pacifica and make her forget all about the carefully crafted plan.

"Play me Old Kong Cole", Henry said. "That I may join with you." Pacifica backed away slowly. "All your heart now seems so far from me", he continued. "It hardly seems to matter now"

Pacifica looked down. The blood-stained croquet mallet began to materialize in her hands. But while she hardly looked comfortable with this situation, Pacifica made no sign of wanting to freak out, even as the open sore in Henry's cracked skull reappeared.

"And you remember, Mabel, we can't interfere, not this time. Pacifica has to manage it on her own", Dipper reminded his sister, who just nodded.

The girl and the dead boy just stood still and looked at each other for a while. Then, for some reason, the mallet disappeared from Pacifica's hand, and so did the visible wounds in Henry's head. As if Henry willed it.

"I've been waiting here for so long.", Henry told her. "And all this time that passed me by", Henry continued repeating his lines from the other night, "It hardly seems to matter now…You stand there with your fixed expression, casting doubt on all I have to say…"

Pacifica almost backed away as he tried to touch her, only to find that he couldn't.

"Why don't you touch me, touch me" he chanted, "touch me now, now, now now…"

And then, as he continued chanting uninterruptedly, his body began ageing rapidly, leaving a child's mind inside. A lifetime's desires surged through him. And before they knew it, a bearded old man was standing before her.

"Henry?" Pacifica asked.

"I can't believe it actually worked!" Mabel whispered.

"I can hardly believe it myself", Dipper admitted, remembering what he had read in the book about amorous ghosts:

"_A spirit driven by unfulfilled romantic desires may be brought to rest if he or she is allowed to encounter a former lover one last time, in a controlled environment without using fear or force. Being allowed one last rendezvous under such circumstances will allow the spirit to purge its desires out of its body and age rapidly until it has reached an age where it's no longer driven by desire. Then it's ready to pass on." _

"I can't touch you, Henry", said Pacifica calmly. "You're dead."

Old Henry looked at the girl in front of him with a calm and reassuringly lustless expression on his face.

"Dead…", he muttered. It sounded more like a confession than a question.

"And I killed you. It was an accident, but I killed you. Can you ever forgive me?

"I already have", he answered. "And I'm ready to pass on now. Just promise me you will find new love, Pacifica."

The musical box began playing by itself one more time.

"I promise.", the blonde said with a solemn voice as the spirit of the young boy with an old man's appearance faded away.

For several minutes, Pacifica just stared at the place where Henry had been talking to her. When she finally turned around, looking at the twins, she went over to Dipper and said to him:

"Well, I can't argue with the results, can I? Your theory actually worked. You're a smart kid, I don't know where you take it all from.."

_And I'm afraid I can't tell you that_, Dipper added in his mind.

"Thank you, Dipper, I owe you one.", she added, her voice sounding a little warmer this time. Then she looked down and noticed she was holding his hand with both of her hands. She retracted her hands nervously, looking down for a moment.

"And Mabel", she began, then hesitated as she looked the brunette in the eyes. "Well, let's be honest, you didn't really do much."

"Hey!" she snapped "At least I chased away Henry…ah well, I guess_ that_ part didn't really help much in the long run…"

"But you were there for me and your brother, and you supported me all the way", she continued as she held out her hand, "Thanks."

For once, Mabel was at loss for words, and she had to stop herself from gaping as she took Pacifica's hand and shook it.

**~0~**

Also to the twins' surprise, Pacifica had her family's chauffeur driving them home that evening.

"Huh. Maybe Pacifica isn't so bad", Mabel remarked as they stepped out of the car.

"Yeah, and maybe Grunkle Stan is actually Santa Claus", Dipper quipped.

"Joke all you want, brother, but I noticed how Pacifica looked at you just before she left. I think she's beginning to have a crush on you."

"Oh come on! That's your most ridiculous idea yet, including the one about there being an invisible shrinking wizard in the closet!"

"This is love, and that's different. I've never been wrong about these things so far."

"Well, there's a first for everything.", Dipper replied, hurriedly using the twins' spare key to unlock the door to the Mystery Shack.

Mabel just smiled smugly, and he wondered if she'd noticed his blushing.

**The end**


End file.
